📶 Naval's latest project

Why the AngelList founder is betting on the future of social audio

Say “hey” 👋 | Apply 👥 | Upgrade 📶 | Affiliate 💸 | Sponsor 📣

Sponsored by

Good morning 👋

All weekend, my Twitter feed was full of people talking about Airchat.

I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so we break it down in this week’s piece.

Let us know what you think at the bottom of this email.

TL;DR:

NEWS
Hear me out 🎧

Airchat, a social media app that centers around voice-based interactions, was relaunched by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder executive Brian Norgard.

The app, which had undergone a complete rebuild since its initial launch last year, debuted its new version on both iOS and Android. It’s currently invite-only, but the app is already #27 on the App Store despite not being open to the public.

The main difference between Airchat and other social media apps is that Airchat encourages users to engage through audio posts that are automatically played upon opening the app.

Why it matters: 

Short answer: because Naval is involved.

Longer answer: untapped social dynamics

Airchat is betting on the power of voice to foster deeper, more personal connections online. Compare this to the often impersonal nature of text-based communication.

The app's design allows for asynchronous, threaded conversations, which could attract users who prefer to think through their responses without the pressure of live interaction, appealing especially to introverts. This approach aims to transform social networking by making digital interactions feel more natural and less curated.

What happens next: 

We’re cautious any time a new social category emerges, and we don’t know what the future holds for Airchat.

That said, any time a new social media category exists, other platforms take notice and copy features that grab the most adoption. We expect this to happen whether Airchat is successful or not.

Naval has already said that he is not prioritizing revenue any time soon, so all of the company’s resources are going towards building product and improving their retention graph. We’ll stay tuned.

Read more: 

Together with Artisan

Meet Ava, The World’s Best AI BDR

With a database of 250M+ leads, built-in email warmup, advanced lead research, and the ability to send 1000s of hyper-personalized emails, Ava provides end-to-end cold email automation. With plans starting from $225/mo and a 14-day hire trial, what are you waiting for?

Think you need a BDR? Hire Ava instead.

TWEET

REFER
Earn free stuff 🎁

You can get free gifts by telling your friends and family to sign up 👇

You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving 77 Tools That Make Up the VC Tech Stack .

JOBS

Find investing roles before the crowd

Find funds + contact data before they start marketing roles they are hiring for.

Recently closed funds:

Name

Fund Size

Fund Number

Bitkraft

$275m

III

Laton

$35m

I

Zero Prime

$48m

II

Super{set}

$90m

II

Bedrock

$400m

IV

B Capital

$750m

II

Ethos Fund

$12m

I

P.S. 👉 If you’re hiring (or plan to hire) investors … 

We’re building a better way for venture capital and growth equity funds to build world-class investment teams.

RECS

Big Desk Energy

startup insights, stories, and vibes sent to your inbox every Tuesday

Cyber Patterns

Social media strategies for nerds trying to blow up the internet

Sandhill Report

Daily(ish) action from the venture world. Live virtual event invites. Occasionally witty commentary. For free.

MEME

Thanks for reading this far and giving us a little bit of your attention this week.

Feel free to unsubscribe whenever this stops becoming valuable to you.

P.S. Here are the results from our poll question in last week’s piece:

Which category of companies are you most bullish on today?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SaaS (14)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Dev tools (10)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Fintech (7)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Infrastructure (9)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ Healthcare (13)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ APIs (10)

63 Votes

Join the conversation

or to participate.